High Performance In A Compact Form Factor

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 was launched about a year ago and we have seen several cards featuring a customized cooler like the Palit GeForce GTX 670 JetStream as well as variations from the reference design that provided better power delivery like the ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP card. Both cards touted higher performance levels with overclocking out of the box.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini OC has a 928 MHz base clock with a boost clock of 1,006MHz, but its 2GB of memory chips have not been overclocked as they are rated to operate collectively at 6,008MHz (which is the same as the memory on a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670). However the main focus of the card is its diminutive nature as it measures roughly about 7 inches in length (17 centimeters) and 4.7 inches in height (12 centimeters). While the card's thickness requires it to occupy dual slots, its length is a perfect fit with even a mini-ITX motherboard. This certainly helps enthusiasts build compact mini systems for their HTPC usage that can also double-up for big-screen gaming - nifty indeed.

The card also boasts of the new CoolTech Fan that's touted to have a wider-angle airflow in multi-direction versus that of a traditional cooling fan that has a single-directional airflow in a narrow channel.

The card draws power from its 8-pin Molex connector, and the card has a 5-phase VRM system that boasts of Super Alloy components for better power delivery and longer lifespans.

At the rear of the card, we see a DirectPower plate that covers the SAP capacitors that are located directly behind the NVIDIA GK104 graphics processor (the core used for the GTX 670).

The video connectivity options of the ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini OC include one dual-link DVI-D port, one dual-link DIV-I port, one full-size DisplayPort, and a HDMI port. In essence, you get all the expected ports from a full-sized graphics card.

There are a pair of SLI connectors that would allow you to combine up to three GeForce GTX 670 cards in a multi-GPU setup. Such a setup obviously calls for a ATX board or larger board with the corresponding PEG slots and a full tower PC chassis.